The Ikea Effect

[Adam White]

Yes, it's a big stretch to associate all retail in that area of Northern Virginia with IKEA.

I lived in Dale City, very close to where the mall is now, in the early/mid 1970s. It's crazy how much that area has exploded. At the time, it was kind of a sleepy area.

[InnerCityPressure]

Yes, it's a big stretch to associate all retail in that area of Northern Virginia with IKEA.

Yeah.  Especially because the same "effect" didn't happen at the College Park location north of DC.

[finehoe]

Yes, it's a big stretch to associate all retail in that area of Northern Virginia with IKEA.

When the store opened in the late 80s, there wasn't anything there. Now every retail chain known to man is nearby.  It may be a stretch to associate "all" retail in that area to Ikea, bur it has undoubtedly been a driver.  Hopefully it will do the same in Jacksonville.

[Adam White]

Yes, it's a big stretch to associate all retail in that area of Northern Virginia with IKEA.

When the store opened in the late 80s, there wasn't anything there. Now every retail chain known to man is nearby.  It may be a stretch to associate "all" retail in that area to Ikea, bur it has undoubtedly been a driver.  Hopefully it will do the same in Jacksonville.

Well, the mall was there. And it's a massive mall. The IKEA location was/is very successful. I think they actually had to move it as a result. I'd wager the mall is the main reason that area has exploded. Kind of like Tysons Corner.

[thelakelander]

^That was my point. That mall was a hell of a lot more than just IKEA when it opened. It's a pretty big stretch to cherry pick one chain store in a mall, with 1.6 million square feet of retail space, and give it credit for what developed over the next three decades.

[finehoe]

It's a pretty big stretch to cherry pick one chain store in a mall, with 1.6 million square feet of retail space, and give it credit for what developed over the next three decades.

Except no one has done that.  The only ones who said it was "associated with all retail in that area" or that "it was solely due to IKEA" were you guys, not me.  The observation was made that IKEA has not had much of an impact in pulling retail around it in Tampa; I noted that that certainly isn't true of Woodbridge.  The area has gone from not much of anything to a huge retail mecca.  And one of the original draws that got the whole thing going was the presence of IKEA. 

[Adam White]

It's a pretty big stretch to cherry pick one chain store in a mall, with 1.6 million square feet of retail space, and give it credit for what developed over the next three decades.

Except no one has done that.  The only ones who said it was "associated with all retail in that area" or that "it was solely due to IKEA" were you guys, not me.  The observation was made that IKEA has not had much of an impact in pulling retail around it in Tampa; I noted that that certainly isn't true of Woodbridge.  The area has gone from not much of anything to a huge retail mecca.  And one of the original draws that got the whole thing going was the presence of IKEA.

But you certainly can't call that the IKEA effect. The whole point of this thread is whether an IKEA will encourage commercial development - and the point of the thing about Tampa is that it certainly hasn't there. You replied that it had in Woodbridge. But you can't say that it has. We have no way to tell what the impact of IKEA was. But even if it was massive, it still wasn't a sole IKEA location that drew that development. So it's not fair comparison.

Maybe you should be clearer and no one will misjudge what you mean? I don't know. But when this exchange happens, it sure looks like your making a case for IKEA being the reason:

I don't think IKEA has had much of an impact in pulling retail around it in Tampa.

It has in Woodbridge, VA

[finehoe]

Maybe you should be clearer and no one will misjudge what you mean? I don't know. But when this exchange happens, it sure looks like your making a case for IKEA being the reason:

I don't think IKEA has had much of an impact in pulling retail around it in Tampa.

It has in Woodbridge, VA

Because it has.  Did IKEA single-handedly draw all of the retail offerings now there to Woodbridge?  No, of course not.  But I'd be willing to wager that for the first ten years after it opened (and maybe even today) if you asked random people in the DC, Richmond, or Norfolk areas if they could name one store at Potomac Mills Mall, the number one answer would've been "IKEA".  This doesn't mean people don't shop at other offerings there and it doesn't mean that IKEA is even the store there with the highest foot traffic.  What it does mean is having an IKEA there was an important factor in establishing the area as the retail powerhouse it is now.  Yes, there are differences between Tampa, Jacksonville, and Woodbridge. Yes, times are different now than what they were then.  Yes, you can't always extrapolate what happens in one location to another.  Nevertheless, if it's fair to note that not much retail has sprung up around the Tampa store, then it's also fair to note that the opposite has happened around the Woodbridge store.  The title of the thread is The Ikea Effect; obviously there is more than one.

Is that clear enough for you?

[thelakelander]

I think a stronger argument would be the impact of Potomac Mills, as a whole, in that particular area. The same could be said of many malls across the country, including many in this state, such as Sawgrass Mills, Regency Square, St. Johns Town Center, Florida Mall, Lakeland Square, Aventura Mall, etc. With that said, I'm not saying there isn't an IKEA effect. Woodbridge just isn't the best example of one. It would be like claiming IKEA led to all the retail around it in Orlando, when the upscale mall across the street was the more dominant factor.

[Adam White]

Maybe you should be clearer and no one will misjudge what you mean? I don't know. But when this exchange happens, it sure looks like your making a case for IKEA being the reason:

I don't think IKEA has had much of an impact in pulling retail around it in Tampa.

It has in Woodbridge, VA

Because it has.  Did IKEA single-handedly draw all of the retail offerings now there to Woodbridge?  No, of course not.  But I'd be willing to wager that for the first ten years after it opened (and maybe even today) if you asked random people in the DC, Richmond, or Norfolk areas if they could name one store at Potomac Mills Mall, the number one answer would've been "IKEA".  This doesn't mean people don't shop at other offerings there and it doesn't mean that IKEA is even the store there with the highest foot traffic.  What it does mean is having an IKEA there was an important factor in establishing the area as the retail powerhouse it is now.  Yes, there are differences between Tampa, Jacksonville, and Woodbridge. Yes, times are different now than what they were then.  Yes, you can't always extrapolate what happens in one location to another.  Nevertheless, if it's fair to note that not much retail has sprung up around the Tampa store, then it's also fair to note that the opposite has happened around the Woodbridge store.  The title of the thread is The Ikea Effect; obviously there is more than one.

Is that clear enough for you?

Your comment implied IKEA was responsible for the amount of development in Woodbridge.

As I said, maybe you should've been clearer.

[finehoe]

I think a stronger argument would be the impact of Potomac Mills, as a whole, in that particular area. The same could be said of many malls across the country, including many in this state, such as Sawgrass Mills, Regency Square, St. Johns Town Center, Florida Mall, Lakeland Square, Aventura Mall, etc. With that said, I'm not saying there isn't an IKEA effect. Woodbridge just isn't the best example of one. It would be like claiming IKEA led to all the retail around it in Orlando, when the upscale mall across the street was the more dominant factor.

The difference is most of the malls you cite weren't in the middle of nowhere like Potomac Mills was when it was built.  People weren't driving an hour+ from DC and other cities just to buy things at stores that could be found closer to home.  Having an IKEA there made the mall a destination, and since it was a destination, other retailers followed suit, and the whole place snowballed. We can argue all day about what percentage was due to the presence of the IKEA, but I think the case is strong that had the Potomac Mills Mall not had the IKEA it wouldn't have become the draw that it did.

[Adam White]

I think a stronger argument would be the impact of Potomac Mills, as a whole, in that particular area. The same could be said of many malls across the country, including many in this state, such as Sawgrass Mills, Regency Square, St. Johns Town Center, Florida Mall, Lakeland Square, Aventura Mall, etc. With that said, I'm not saying there isn't an IKEA effect. Woodbridge just isn't the best example of one. It would be like claiming IKEA led to all the retail around it in Orlando, when the upscale mall across the street was the more dominant factor.

The difference is most of the malls you cite weren't in the middle of nowhere like Potomac Mills was when it was built.  People weren't driving an hour+ from DC and other cities just to buy things at stores that could be found closer to home.  Having an IKEA there made the mall a destination, and since it was a destination, other retailers followed suit, and the whole place snowballed. We can argue all day about what percentage was due to the presence of the IKEA, but I think the case is strong that had the Potomac Mills Mall not had the IKEA it wouldn't have become the draw that it did.

To be fair, Potomac Mills is less than an hour from DC (assuming you're not trying to make the trip during rush hour). My dad used to commute to the Pentagon every day and it took him 2 hours or so during rush hour. But the trip into DC was always much shorter at other times. Last time I was up that way, I stayed in Woodbridge and it took about a half hour or so to get to DC.

Although the area has exploded, I wouldn't have classified it as the "middle of nowhere" before the mall was built. It was basically a bedroom community for DC. Dale City (where I lived and where Potomac Mills is on the border of) was a planned community that was built in the 60s. Pretty much all of my neighbors worked in DC.

[Adam White]

As an aside, I googled "the IKEA effect" and apparently it exists - but it refers to a "cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect

[thelakelander]

I think a stronger argument would be the impact of Potomac Mills, as a whole, in that particular area. The same could be said of many malls across the country, including many in this state, such as Sawgrass Mills, Regency Square, St. Johns Town Center, Florida Mall, Lakeland Square, Aventura Mall, etc. With that said, I'm not saying there isn't an IKEA effect. Woodbridge just isn't the best example of one. It would be like claiming IKEA led to all the retail around it in Orlando, when the upscale mall across the street was the more dominant factor.

The difference is most of the malls you cite weren't in the middle of nowhere like Potomac Mills was when it was built.  People weren't driving an hour+ from DC and other cities just to buy things at stores that could be found closer to home.  Having an IKEA there made the mall a destination, and since it was a destination, other retailers followed suit, and the whole place snowballed. We can argue all day about what percentage was due to the presence of the IKEA, but I think the case is strong that had the Potomac Mills Mall not had the IKEA it wouldn't have become the draw that it did.

I'd say Kings Dominion is out in the middle of nowhere (about 50 miles or so south of Woodbridge). Woodbridge is only 23 miles from DC. It's roughly the same distance between DT Jax and Ponte Vedra. Northern Virginia began exploding in population right after 1950, just like much of suburban Jax did during the same time period. By the time Potomac Mills opened, it wasn't the middle of nowhere. However, the mall was positioned to cater to much more than DC area residents.

When it opened, it was an attraction unto itself, like the Mills Corporation's other large outlet malls built in the following years. It featured a ton of outlet retailers that you could not find in the average mall. Florida's example is Sawgrass Mills, which was built by the same developer on the edge of the Everglades a few years later in 1990. It didn't have an IKEA initially (now there's one is right down the road from it), but it attracted just as much retail development around it over the last couple of decades.

The original "superregional specialty mall" was constructed on 143 acres, which was previously occupied by an apple processing plant. The site was situated 22 miles southwest of the United States Capitol, in an unincorporated section of suburban Prince William County, Virginia.

POTOMAC MILLS was designed by Michigan's Wah Yee Associates. The Phase I structure encompassed 650,000 leasable square feet, with its first operational stores opening September 12, 1985. These included a 1-level (150,000 square foot), Myrtle Beach-based Waccamaw Pottery, as well as Linens 'N Things, Lamp Factory Outlet, Just For Kids Outlet and Hamrick's.

An official dedication, held September 19, 1985, brought stores and services  such as Benetton Outlet, Books-A-Million, Park Street Cafeteria, Waxie Maxie's Records, Record World, Sears Outlet, Raleigh's Outlet, the Elvis Presley Museum and a 14-bay Food Court.

The single-level center was built in a spartan / minimalist fashion. Storefronts in the warehouse-like interior were painted in muted pastel shades. Throughout the corridors were several overhead "Mills TV" video screens, which broadcast commercials for the various mall stores and services.

There was also a state-of-the-art -for 1985- network of nine touch-screen terminals. These featured 3-D computer-generated graphics which guided shoppers through the meandering mall.

The Mills mall concept, novel in the mid-1980s, dispensed with traditional mid-to-upper tier department store anchors in favor of a blending of factory-owned and operated discount outlets, specialty retailers and service-type shops. It proved to be a successful venture.

Phase II consisted of 550,000 leasable square feet and was officially dedicated July 21, 1986. It encompassed a single level and brought the GLA of POTOMAC MILLS up to 1,210,000 square feet, with a retail roster of one hundred and seventy retailers. The mall now stretched for .9 of a mile from end to end.

A 150,000 square foot Ikea had become the first operational Phase II store, on April 17, 1986. It was followed by Nordstrom Rack (41,000 square feet), a Cohoes Specialty Store, Friendly Restaurant and the AMC Potomac Mills 10 multiplex. The original mall was divided into nine numbered "Neighborhoods", beginning with Neighborhood One on the east and ending with Neighborhood Nine on the west.

Full article: http://shoppingmallmuseum.blogspot.com/2010/12/potomac-mills-opitz-boulevard-and.html

[tufsu1]

The difference is most of the malls you cite weren't in the middle of nowhere like Potomac Mills was when it was built.  People weren't driving an hour+ from DC and other cities just to buy things at stores that could be found closer to home.  H

Mom used to take us shopping at Potomac Mills once a year for new clothes.  It took us just over an hour to get there from Columbia, MD (midway between Baltimore and DC).  I think it is very comparable to the distance many in south Florida drove when Sawgrass Mills first opened.

and, btw, we never shopped at that IKEA.  We had one at the White Marsh Mall just north of Baltimore